Close Biden friend at New York Times says president must drop out, debate made him 'weep'

Some of President Biden's longest and staunchest allies, including liberal columnist Thomas Friedman, are now calling on Biden to allow another Democrat to run for president after his performance at the CNN Presidential Debate on Thursday night.

Friedman, a close friend of the president's, wrote that the debate was one of the most "heartbreaking" events he has witnessed in American politics.

"Joe Biden, a good man and a good president, has no business running for re-election," Friedman wrote.

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Friedman said that the debate between Biden and former President Trump made him "weep."

"To give America the greatest shot possible of deterring the Trump threat in November, the president has to come forward and declare that he will not be running for re-election and is releasing all of his delegates for the Democratic National Convention," he wrote.

He claimed that he'd given Biden the "benefit of the doubt" before because of their prior interactions in one-on-one meetings. The president has been a longtime reader of the veteran reporter and opinion writer and looks to him for guidance on Middle East issues.

"I had been ready to give Biden the benefit of the doubt up to now, because during the times I engaged with him one on one, I found him up to the job," Friedman wrote. "He clearly is not any longer."

Friedman argued that Vice President Kamala Harris has a right to compete for the top spot but wrote that "voters deserve an open process" to find a replacement candidate for Biden, opening up the possibilities for Democratic Party leaders to compete before the Democratic convention on Aug. 19.

"A younger Joe Biden could have been that leader, but